As he headed into work Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wasn't confident enough to bet on a unanimous victory for the first budget he submitted to the Chicago City Council.

After all, the new mayor was asking aldermen to charge people more and give them less. Prices for water, vehicle stickers and parking would rise, and mental health clinics, police stations and library hours would fall.

Following a few hours of mostly effusive praise, however, Emanuel had won a 50-0 vote and lost a wager in the process. Powerful 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke, who has seen 42 budgets come and go, proved prescient in betting that all the aldermen would support the spending plan.

While the nature of what was on the line remained fuzzy, Emanuel didn't seem unhappy to have to pay up. Unanimity, he said, was not a requirement.

"I didn't present a budget to get 50 votes," Emanuel said afterward. "I presented a budget to seize the city's future and shape it, rather than be shaped by it."

Emanuel, a veteran of two White House administrations and a former congressional leader, knew how to put together a complex proposal, when to stand firm and when to bend — if only slightly — to the will of aldermen.

"The way you get to a 50-to-nothing vote is collaboration, respect and compromise, and that's exactly what we've seen here," said second-term Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, who voted against three of former Mayor Richard Daley's budgets. "While we didn't all celebrate this budget, it's an austerity budget, this mayor and his administration took into account the concerns being raised by all of us."

A handful of aldermen said they weren't sure how they would vote just hours before decision time, but in the end they chose to give Emanuel a chance to prove himself.

"I am not at ease with this approach but will allow the benefit of the doubt," said freshman Ald. John Arena, 45th, who was concerned that frontline city workers will bear the brunt of the more than 500 layoffs contained in the budget.

Later, Waguespack said the mayor's top aides thought he, Arena and some other aldermen were going to vote against the budget, given that they continued to press for changes until the last minute.

A fear factor also crept into the political calculus.

Some alderman said in interviews they were uncomfortable with the idea of standing alone in opposition to Emanuel, a politician known to hold a grudge.

Despite the wide pain the budget stands to inflict, it avoids issues that can prove fatal in politics: increases in the property and sales taxes.

Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, who backed the budget all along, said he wasn't surprised by the vote because Emanuel enjoys a strong public image.

"The mayor is at the zenith of his popularity," Mell said. "You want to be voting against something that the citizenry — even though there are a few things out there they don't like — like the leadership he's giving?"

Ald. Sandi Jackson, 7th, observed that Emanuel was easier to deal with than some had expected.

"There was a sense that you would come in here heavy and strong," Jackson said. "Washington wanted us to believe that you would not come here and work with this body. But I want you to know the team that you have assembled has been first class."

That the budget would pass was not in much doubt. Before he even took office, Emanuel had a strong say in which aldermen became committee chairmen. But the new mayor denied that the council had quickly fallen into submission, a common criticism of aldermen under Daley.

"I don't think this was a rubber stamp, and nor was it Council Wars," said Emanuel, noting that some predicted the departure of Daley might make for a restive council.

After the votes were tallied, Emanuel confirmed that he had wagered on the outcome of the budget vote, just as he had done in the White House under President Bill Clinton. Emanuel also acknowledged his background helped him pass the budget.

"I told the aldermen when I met them when I was in the transition, 'I, too, was a legislator ... and I will respect the role you have to play as a former legislator myself,'" Emanuel said.

During the weeks of give and take on his spending plan, Emanuel and his top aides kept open the lines of communication. Nearly two weeks ago, he announced a set of compromises after receiving a letter from 28 aldermen outlining their top concerns.

He softened the blow of library cuts, spread out the pain of vehicle sticker fee price increases and kept more graffiti-erasing crews on the streets. Emanuel also agreed to reduce the hit of water bills on nonprofit groups and phase out, instead of immediately eliminate, rebates to condo owners whose garbage the city does not pick up.

But the mayor still plans to close three of the city's 25 police stations. And job eliminations would total 540 by midyear.